Ponty Chadha wanted to evict Hardeep from farmhouse

Dec 5, 2012, 03.32AM ISTTNN

NEW DELHI: Investigations by the crime branch into the Ponty Chadha shootout case point towards a conspiracy by Ponty and his friend Sukhdev Singh Namdhari to grab the farmhouse number 42 on November 17, and a plot to murder Ponty's brother Hardeep in the process, hatched by Namdhari and his personal security officer (PSO) Sachin Tyagi.

Sources in the police said they were now trying to ascertain if the conspiracy to eliminate Hardeep Chadha was hatched in parallel to that for grabbing the farmhouse, and whether Ponty was privy to the plan. Namdhari and Tyagi have been arrested and booked for murder and hatching a criminal conspiracy. Police have also started questioning Tyagi after being allowed a three-day custody on Tuesday.

A senior police officer said, "During interrogation, it was revealed that first a plan to evict Hardeep from the farmhouse took root. The killings were the outcome of a conspiracy by Namdhari. He initially told us that he did not plant to kill him but on sustained interrogation, he was unable to explain satisfactorily the presence of so many men at the farmhouse on the fateful day, and the need for such a huge cache of arms and ammunitions."

The officer added that Namdhari and Sachin Tyagi told them during interrogation that Ponty had been warned about a possible shootout if Hardeep and his men put up a fight, to which Ponty had no objection.

"However, we are verifying and cross-checking every line he is saying because most of what he is saying is simply a pack of lies. He talks all sorts of irrelevant things," he added. Police have detained about five to six men from Uttarakhand and Dehradun and are questioning them. They, however, refused to confirm if the men had been arrested. Meanwhile, Sachin Tyagi, who was arrested on Monday night, was sent to three days' police custody after cops told the court that he, too, had fired at the liquor baron's brother.

"Sustained custodial interrogation is required to unearth the sequence and consequences of the crime and for recovery of the weapons used in the crime. In view of the submissions made for the recovery of other weapons, the accused is remanded in police custody till December 7," the court said.